• Greek historia translates to "an account of one's inquiries"
  • "History" is distinct from "events in the past"
• Factual literature, grounded the rigorous analysis of evidence, but not "science"
  • Many genres: classical history; chronicles; institutional histories; biography; prosopography; digital
  • Many approaches: longue durée; social; political; Marxist and economic; medical; military; intellectual; psychology; archaeology; religion; etc.
  • Not just stories and propaganda about nations and "great men"
• "Progress" is not just one story that can be told, and a trap that's easy to fall for

This is the display of the inquiry (historia) of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, so that things done by man not be forgotten in time, and that great and marvelous deeds, some displayed by the Hellenes, some by the barbarians, not lose their glory, including among others what was the cause of their waging war on each other.

Herodotus, Histories, I.1. Translated A.D. Godley

Hecataeus the historian was once at Thebes , where he made a genealogy for himself that had him descended from a god in the sixteenth generation. But the priests of Zeus did with him as they also did with me. They brought me into the great inner court of the temple and showed me wooden figures there, for every high priest sets up a statue of himself there during his lifetime. The priests showed me that each succeeded his father. They went through the whole line of figures, back to the earliest from that of the man who had most recently died. Thus, when Hecataeus had traced his descent and claimed that his sixteenth forefather was a god, the priests too traced a line of descent; for they would not be persuaded by him that a man could be descended from a god. They traced descent through the whole line of three hundred and forty-five figures, not connecting it with any ancestral god or hero, but declaring each figure to be a "Piromis" the son of a "Piromis"; in Greek, a good man.

Herodotus Histories, II.143. Translated A.D. Godley

As to the speeches which were made either before or during the war, it was hard for me, and for others who reported them to me, to recollect the exact words. I have therefore put into the mouth of each speaker the sentiments proper to the occasion, expressed as I thought he would be likely to express them, while at the same time I endeavoured, as nearly as I could, to give the general purport of what was actually said. Of the events of the war I have not ventured to speak from any chance information, nor according to any notion of my own; I have described nothing but what I either saw myself, or learned from others of whom I made the most careful and particular enquiry. The task was a laborious one, because eye-witnesses of the same occurrences gave different accounts of them, as they remembered or were interested in the actions of one side or the other.

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, I.22.1. Translated by B. Jowett.

• Continuous tradition through c.600 AD
• Focus on politics and warfare, and the individuals involved
  • ethnography
• Heavy focus on interpretation
• Obscure sources
• Elaborate speeches
• Lengthy digressions
  • Geographical, chronological, topical
• Constructed sequentially to previous works
  • Clear authorial voice

• Examples from antiquity, but best known from middle ages
• Effectively a timeline
  • annalistic or narrative (non-annalistic)
• Strict chronological listing of events
  • Wide range of topics (regnal dates, calamities, natural phenomena and disasters)
• Annonymous authorship
  • Can be updated continuously

• The direct ancestor of modern history writing
• Originally ecclesiastical histories, but could be applied to any group or organization
• Strong authorial voice
• Attention to sources
  • Direct quotations
  • Citations
• Often have strong moralizing purpose

• B. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. Revised Edition. (2016).
• E.H. Carr, What is History?. (1967). [half a century old, but a classic brief introduction]
• E. Cheng, Historiography: An Introductory Guide. (2012).
• E. Gellner, Nations and Nationalism. Second Edition. (2009).
• J.D. Popkin, From Herodotus to H-Net: The Story of Historiography. (2015).

• Spread and influence of Greek (Hellenic) culture

• Military reforms
  • Macedonian
  • Republican maniples
  • Marian reforms
• Rome's Republican system
  • Organization
  • Checks and balances
  • Systemic collapse

Alexander the Great's empire at his death, 323 BC

The Hellenistic Kingdoms c.200 BC

Alexandria on the Oxus (Ai-Khanoum, Afghanistan)

• Theater which could seat 4-6,000
• Palace in Greco-Persian fusion style
• Gymnasium dedicated to Hermes and Herakles (in Greek)

Hellenistic objects from Ai Khanoum: (top left) olive oil storage jar with Greek inscription; (bottom left) gold starter of Baktrian king Eukratides; (centre) head from a plaster sculpture, C2 BC; (right) bas-relief statue of a youth, destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

Hoplite warfare

• The Macedonian phalanx
  • Professional soldiers and mercenaries
  • sarissa a pikce ~16' long, required both hands
  • Shield hung around neck

• The Roman "Manipular" system (C4-C2 BC)
  • Citizen-soldiers, owned equipment
  • Javeline (pilum) and short sword (gladius)
  • Fought in distinct units (maniples, ~120 men) in three lines: hastati, principes and triarii

There was one people in the world which would fight for others' liberties at its own cost, to its own peril, and with its own toil, not limiting its guaranties of freedom to its neighbours, to men of the immediate vicinity, or to countries that lay close at hand, but ready to cross the sea that there might be no unjust empire anywhere and that everywhere justice, right, and law might prevail.

Translated E.T. Sage (Vol. 9, p. 367)

• Assemblies (most important: comitia tributa and concilium plebis)
  • elected magistrates
  • accepted or rejected laws
  • administered justice
  • declared war or peace
• Senate
  • advised magistrates and the state
• Magistrates (elected officials)
  • Dictator (6 months)
  • Consul (two elected every year)
  • Tribune of the Plebs (ten, annually)

• Starting with the conflicts against Carthage, long wars disrupted the economic lives of the Republic's citizen-soldiers
  • Agricultural economy, new techniques and foreign slaves
  • Growing income inequality
  • Bankrupt farmers migrated to Rome becoming the urban destitute (proletarii)
• In 146 BC, Carthage and Corinth were brutally sacked and destroyed
  • Military stagnation
  • Rampant corruption in the provinces

• Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus (c.122 BC)
• Marian Reforms (107 BC)
  • Professional soldiers drawn from the poorest classes (proletarii)
  • Standardized equipment paid by the state
  • Long enlistments (16, leter 20 years)
  • Dependent on commanders to secure pay & pension, tied loyalty to persons rather than the Republic

• Tiberius Gracchus (d. 133): Tribune (of the Plebs), attempted to seize and redistribute lands to landless citizens. Tried to hold office for successive terms, murdered by senatorial partisans.
• Caius Gracchus (d. 121): Tribue, attempted to continue brother's reforms, introduced grain dole. Murdered after running for third consecutive term.
• Marius (d. 86 BC): reformed the Roman legions, making them loyal to generals instead of the Republic. Held the consulship an unprecedented 7 times.
• Sulla (d. 78 BC): consul (twice), led an army against Rome itself (twice), given "unlimited" dictatorship and carred out brutal reactionary repraisals against political enemies.

• Pompey (d. 48 BC): successful commander and consul, initially allied with Caesar but then led the senatorial opposition to defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus.
• Julius Caesar (d. 44 BC): conquerer of Gaul. When politial enemies gained control of the government, he marched on Rome and was made dictator for final 5 years of life.
• Brutus (d. 42 BC): close friend of Caesar and leader of his assassination plot. Decisively defeated at Battle of Philippi by Octavian and Antony.
• Marc Antony (d. 30 BC): Caesar's lieutenant, allied with Octavian after Caesar's murderr. Ruled in the east in alliance with Cleopatra until defeated at the Battle of Actium.
• Octavian (d. 14 AD): Caesar's great-nephew and adopted heir, he eliminated his political opponents and, in 27 BC, became Augustus, the first Emperor.

• Primary
  • Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, the military history of Alexander's conquests, written almost 500 years later.
  • Livy, Ab Urbe Condita Libri. Written at the turn of the epoch, detailed Rome's history down to his own time. Fragmentary, only about 25% survives.
  • Pliny, Parallel Lives.
• Secondary
  • P. Connolly, Greece and Rome at War. Revised Edition. (1998).
  • P. Thonemann, The Hellenistic Age. (2016).
  • A.M. Ward, F.M. Heichelheim, C.A. Yeo, A History of the Roman People. 4th Edition. (2003).